Entertainment

In a never-before-seen video from In Their Own Words: The American Masters Digital Archive, singer, dancer, actress and civil rights activist Lena Horne shares her disappointment in the lack of progress made toward racial equality throughout her lifetime.

Episode two of the American Masters Podcast features Lena Horne discussing the difficulties of navigating the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood studio system and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Maybe it’s because I’m a black woman, but maybe because I’m a woman, I don’t see as much as I wanted. I don’t see it happening as much as it happened to us 10 years ago. I think it’s worsened and it’s like the French say, ‘the more we change, the more it stays the same.’ I’m hearing the same old stories and seeing the same old incidents I saw before 1960. And when Paul Robeson told me, ‘that’s alright, your grandchildren will see it better,’ he didn’t know I’d still have to wait. Now I’ve got a great grandson and wonder how long he’s going to have to wait.” – Lena Horne, August 29, 1996, filmed for American Masters — Lena Horne: In Her Own Voice (1996).

“True faith stands up for the oppressed and the broken.”

Christian hip hop artist Lecrae has often been vocal about standing up for black lives on social media and beyond. And in the days since the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, the Grammy-award winning musician has once again used his social media presence to talk about systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter movement

“True faith stands up for the oppressed and the broken…” he wrote in a post. “Christians saying that ‘preaching the gospel is all we need’ ignores how sin affects infrastructures and societal systems.

“If you ever trusted in anything I’ve said, if you’ve used my words to stir your hope or joy, then trust that same voice now,” he continued. “This is an epidemic that school books or church services haven’t taught you.”

Read the full post below.

Earlier in the week, the musician also tweeted that the freedom America celebrates on July 4 doesn’t apply to everyone. The tweet quickly went viral.

The rapper, whose fan base reportedly includes many white evangelical Christians, wrote in the Billboard piece that many of his supporters were upset by that tweet. When Lecrae talks about race on social media, he often gets pushback from fans who claim he’s teaching a divisive message that is causing more racial tension. The comments in his posts are often littered with sentiments like “The race card needs to go, and Christ needs to be at the center,” or “How is saying that all lives matter selfish and rude?”

But, the rapper wrote, “There’s a difference between creating division and exposing the division that’s being ignored.”

For Lecrae, understanding begins with humility and with listening to voices you may not agree with. It takes humility, he writes, to hear another person’s vantage point and life story.

“A lot of times, when you don’t have to deal with some of the circumstances that affect minority culture, you just don’t think they exist. This is a conversation I have with lots of my white friends all the time,” he wrote. “When I share my experiences with them, they’re like, ‘Oh. Really?’”

Policemen walk on the sidelines as protesters hold a sign which states “Black Lives Matter,” during a march against police brutality in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 9, 2016. REUTERS/Bria Webb

Statistics show that there is a difference in the way white and minority Protestants perceive police brutality towards black lives. According to a 2015 study conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 57 percent of white evangelical Protestants believed the killings of black men by police in Ferguson, New York and Baltimore were “isolated incidents.” In contrast, 70 percent of minority Protestants ― including black, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islanders, and mixed-race Protestants ― agreed that these deaths are part of a broader problem and a pattern of injustice towards African Americans.

From his advocacy online, it’s clear that regardless of the opinions of his critics, Lecrae is intent on doing his part to close this gap in understanding.

“This is a moral issue across the board for humanity,” he wrote in the Billboard op-ed. “If you subscribe to any moral code that says you should care for humanity, obviously black people will fit into that category. So why would you not advocate for justice and truth unless you have something to lose?”

Gabby Douglas is already at the top of her game: the Olympian has two gold medals to her name, plus multiple world championships; she’s gearing up for her second Olympic games later this August in Rio – she was officially selected for the U.S. women’s gymnastics Olympic team last night; and on top of all that, she now has her own Barbie doll.

Long-time toy maker, Mattel, skipped the flowers for Gabby Douglas, and instead celebrated the Olympian’s success at the U.S. gymnastics team’s trials this weekend with a Barbie of her likeness. The 2012 champion couldn’t be more happier.

“I’m so excited,” Douglas tells PEOPLE. “My older sister and I used to play with Barbies and create these dramatic fantasy stories, so it’s such a huge honor.”

She hopes the kids playing with her doll will take away her number-one lesson for young women and men: Stay true to yourself, and go after your dreams.

“Be yourself and really embrace your inner beauty and your true talent,” she tells PEOPLE. “Believe in yourself. Never let anyone tell you you can’t do something when you can.”

Although it’s been four years since her last Olympics, the memories are still fresh in Douglas’s mind. With that Olympic medal and experience under pressure under her belt, she plans on going into Rio with the same attitude.

“I’m just going to do the same thing I did in London,” she says. “Focus, train really hard, be consistent and go out and enjoy the journey.”

So what does she plan to do when she gets to Rio? Gabby simply says, “More medals. Gold medals!”

The 20-year-old will be joined by another phenomenal gymnast, Simone Biles. Biles is considered by many to be the greatest female gymnast ever. In three years, she won 14 world championship medals (10 golds), more than any U.S. athlete in history.

At the Olympic trials, Biles won the all-around, earning the sole automatic qualification spot, and was tops on floor exercise and vault, while finishing fourth on balance beam and tied for fourth on uneven bars.

“I’m excited about being with the girls all the time because we all know what it’s like to go through this and we have each other to lean on,” says Biles. “And I think that’s the best thing that could have happened.”

Cree Summer, the real life actress behind the quirky, throwing-up-peace-signs, fun-loving character “Freddie” on the long running sitcome, A Different World, has been working steadily since the show ended in 1993. She was only 23 then and quickly capitalized on her quirky voice to launch a career voicing animated cartoon series. In her illustrious voice over career, she’s even gotten to work as the voice of the green M&M in commercials.

She got her start into voice acting at the age of 11 as the voice of Penny on the popular show Inspector Gadget, and continued to do cartoon voiceovers even during her run on the show A Different World. As a matter of fact, she brought the voices of Elmyra from Tiny Toons and Susie Carmicheal from Rugrats to life during the last few years A Different World was on the air. In her early career, she was a part of such cartoon classics such as The Real Ghostbusters, The Care Bears Movie, Strawberry Shortcake, and The Ewok Adventures.

One reason why she loves voice acting is because she is free to be anything she wants, a black girl, a white girl, even an inanimate object. She felt that as a black actress the best she could ever hope for would be to play a white woman’s black best friend.

Her success has largely come from voice acting, but her real passion is music.

She became good friends with Lisa Bonet and her ex-husband musician Lenny Kravitz. In 1999, Cree released her own solo album entitled, “Street Faerie,” which was produced by Lenny Kravitz. She even toured with Kravitz, opening for his shows. Unfortunately, she was dropped by her record label shortly after going on the road.

Besides her voice, one thing about Summer that people identify her with is her hair.

“Believe it or not, on ‘A Different World’, I was very unhappy with my hair,” admits Summer. “People don’t know that. That was not a happy hair time for me but I’m happy that people were inspired by it though. Debbie Allen had taken my hair and dyed it red and they used to curl it with a curling iron, and it wasn’t until I left ‘A Different World’ at 23, that I learned how to do my hair and fell in love with it.”

It’s always been curly and when I started making records and touring with my music, I started loving my hair. It really became an identity… something for me to hide behind when I was insecure, and

… to show off when I felt confident. But now I’m in a different stage, I’m in my 40’s, I’m a mother and it’s in a bun. I call it the Mom Bun.

Cree continues to do voiceovers for cartoons, commercials and a number of popular video games.

Even with the diverse amount of roles she’s played, Summer still has things she would like to see and accomplish in the business. “One character I’d like to voice that I haven’t played yet is a fairy, and I’d really love to do that. As far as African-American roles, we’ve come a long way, but I’d still like to see more diverse roles for African Americans and other ethnicities being created in the cartoon world.”

The new cast of the Broadway smash “Hamilton” has been announced, and — yes — the actors are as young, scrappy, and hungry as you’d expect.

Here’s what we know:

Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon will take on the role of Aaron Burr beginning sometime in August, replacing the beloved Leslie Odom, Jr. Lexi Lawson will step into the shoes of Eliza Schuyler on July 11, taking over for the “Amelie”-bound Philippa Soo. And on that same day, Javier Muñoz will become Alexander Hamilton (Michael Luwoye will be his alternate) as star and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda departs.

“We know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people every day. So what’s gonna happen is we’re going to have equal rights and justice in our country, or we will restructure their function, and ours,” Williams told the audience.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of popular DJs from Chicago’s south side — Wayne Williams, Jesse Saunders, Alan King, Tony Hatchett and Andre Hatchett — played their unique brand of soulful dance music to huge crowds in packed basements, high school cafeterias and legendary nightspots. Along with a handful of other legendary DJs including Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse, Ron Hardy at the Music Box and Lil’ Louis on the west side of Chicago, the Chosen Few were the DJs primarily responsible during this period for popularizing the underground dance music that came to be known as house music.

The Chosen Few was originally founded as the “Chosen Few Disco Corp.” by DJ Wayne Williams in 1977. In 2006, the group added its first new member in nearly 30 years, legendary DJ and producer Terry Hunter, and in 2012 welcomed DJ and producer Mike Dunn into the ranks.

According to their website, 1990 was the year the Chosen Few DJs and their longtime friend Kim Parham had the idea of inviting old friends from the early house music days to a “reunion picnic” in the park. Beginning as a small gathering of family and friends and later dubbed the “old school picnic,” the reunion became an annual event. Now 25 years later, the “Chosen Few Old School Reunion Picnic” has grown into one of the largest and most highly anticipated music festival events in the world. The event now features world renowned guest DJs, live performances and, of course, the legendary Chosen Few DJs.

When rumors started flying that popular Disney cartoon Doc McStuffins may not be returning for a fifth season, the internet got to work.

Doc McStuffins features a young black female lead character responsible for caring for sick toys and dolls and is quite a hit among the younger generation. According to the New York Times, the show achieved $500 million in merchandise sales last year and has crossed color lines in popularity.

New York, NY -– ColoredContent.com is the very first online video streaming platform dedicated to Black web series. The site launched last year and now has a variety of web series available, for viewers to watch.

Unlike other streaming services, ColoredContent.com does not have a monthly subscription or sign-up fee. A key feature of the platform provides users with easy access to a variety of genres including action, comedy, drama, lifestyle, reality, sci-fi and romance.

“After cutting the cord on cable it was hard to find content that directly shared the Black narrative. YouTube is cluttered with a wide variety of media. I saw there was a need to streamline the process of finding quality black content, so I created ColoredContent.com” says Victoria Coker, founder.

The platform showcases award winning web series like “Smoke & Mirrors” and “Grey”. It also features original web series, such as “Stylist Wars”, and “Style x Us”. The site plans to expand on the number of original series. This year, they released a dating show, “3 Cheers for Love!”, which is similar to the classic dating game but features people of color.

For more information about the web site (updates, new series, and upcoming casting calls), visit www.ColoredContent.com and sign up to their email list.

All shirt proceeds will be split evenly between non-profit organization Pencils of Promise and Usher’s New Look public charity, which helps charities that work to increase access to education in under-privileged minority communities in the U.S. and Latin America, according to a press release for the campaign.

Since its launch in 1999, New Look has worked with more than 25,000 students globally to decrease high school dropout rates. The Grammy Award-winner told HuffPost during an August 2015 interview that he has also “seen kids dream bigger” through their involvement with New Look.

“They know that anything is possible and they’re amazed at all of the opportunities available to them,” he said. “It’s not enough to dream big. You have to have the tools and skills to make it happen.”